Note: this website is definitely a new work in progress! Once we remember how to do the fancy HTML stuff we used to do, and learn some of the fancier new techniques, rest assured that it will be jazzed up considerably. So far, the site is being coded manually in the old-style, using a text editor, with no HTML Editor software involved!

Location description: Near WY 241, about 3 miles NNW of the Smoot store and 6 miles due South of the Afton Municipal Airport hangars. Although the airport is roughly 150 feet lower in altitude than the station and in direct line-of-sight, weather conditions can be expected to be very similar. Don't count on the barometer reading for altimeter-setting, as we haven't figured out yet how to compensate it for sea-level!

How frequently the weather display is updated: every 30 minutes (currently).

By the way, the weather gauges and other displays on the website are likely to change as we get the hang of using the software. The station is capable of displaying far more current and historical data than we can fit on the webpage. So if you have any ideas on what would be useful or fun to see, give a call (we're in the phonebook) or send e mail to us -- genetroy silverstar com (to avoid those nasty webcrawlers, please fill in the @ and dot yourself).

And no, those links above aren't commercials for the weather station stuff! That's just where we got it, if anybody is interested. We bought items that based on our research seemed good, standard products for the serious weather amateur, from a company (Ambient) that seemed to have competitive prices.

Shann L. Call (1956-2006) was a local native and prominent member of the Smoot and Star Valley community. His terribly untimely passing in October 2006 at age 50 from cancer is a loss to us that cannot be measured. Shann was a concert-trained pianist and organist, one-time professional genealogist, accomplished athlete and mountain climber, and highly talented amateur photographer. He was much loved and was well-known to nearly all Star Valley residents. Noted for his considerable artistic talents that he shared freely, his quirky intensity and wry sense of humor, Shann was even better known for his helpfulness to everyone and for his many humble acts of service. Shann could have excelled in a number of professions. He chose instead to magnify an ordinary job as a hardware store clerk into a true professional career of service to all who could use his help. That's just how Shann was; he lived only to serve. Next to his God, his beloved family, and his Church, service freely given to others was his whole life. (photo &COPY; 2006 and courtesy David Olsen)

Shann's family has permitted us to share with you some of his more spectacular outdoor photos of Star Valley and the surrounding area. Usually a solo climber (few could keep up with him!), Shann ascended nearly every knob and peak within a 200 mile radius. He had amazing grit and stamina in these treks, and was known to wear out the best pair of hiking boots in a single season. In recent years, Shann decided to master serious photography in order to share with others the spectacular scenery he viewed from the mountaintops. He learned to take panorama photos, and that genre became his specialty. He portrayed the beauty in such grand vistas, but also in the smallest of things along the way, such as close-ups of a tiny mountain rivulet and the patterns of its small wet stones and moss. Photographing mountain goats face-to-face was a fun obsession of his. Even in his painful last weeks, Shann still found the grit to hike to his favorite places in the mountains and to take some of his best photos.

We hope you enjoy these pictures. Arrangements are being made to sell them as high-quality prints in various papers and sizes, (or to receive donations from viewers) to benefit Shann's family still at home, and help cover in some small way his heavy medical expenses and other costs due to his passing. More to come on that -- for now, please contact the WebMaster for details. Note that all of Shann's photos shown herein are copyright &COPY; 2007 Debora Call, and may not be printed or otherwise used or distributed in any form without her express permission.

This website and the on-line Smoot weather station it links to are owned and operated by Gene Troy as a hobby activity. This is not a commercial site, and we hope to avoid advertising (except for recommending things we like, of course)!

Gene and his wife, Leveda, fell in love with Star Valley on first sight a number of years ago, and immediately decided to make this their retirement home. A computer scientist among other things, Gene has recently retired for the third time - first as a career Army officer, - second as a government specialist in National Security, and - just a few months ago he finally quit his last job as a part-time consultant to his former government employer. So now he has a new career as an amateur weatherman, and has once again become a WebMaster. (photo courtesy Russell Stuart)

Leveda, Gene's loving and beloved long-suffering wife, has patiently put up with his techie obsessions and many other foibles, Lo! these many years. In the meantime she has continued to expand upon her talents as an accomplished artist in several forms of expression. Her favorite these days is the large canvas of house walls, to which she applies expert faux finishes and textures, murals and multi-layered stencils.

Here Leveda is shown with her new grandbaby, Amanda Friedly, at Christmas-time.
(photo courtesy Lisa Friedly)

After many years of roaming spiritually and of living in various less-spectacular places, Gene and Leveda have finally found their spiritual home as eternal companions in the Church of Jesus Christ (of Latter-day Saints), and their physical home among the quietly remarkable people of Smoot, in the most beautiful Star of All Valleys!

Again, if you have any ideas or preferences on what would be useful or fun to see, either here or on the weather website, give us a call (in phonebook) or send e mail to us -- genetroy silverstar com (please fill in the @ and dot yourself).